


Apiphobia

by Fadetouch



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: And some wasps, Bees, F/M, Gen, Prompt Fic, mild violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 12:02:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4624623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fadetouch/pseuds/Fadetouch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long day, the party is ambushed on their way back to the camp. Lavellan has to choose between bees and the bae.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apiphobia

The light of the setting sun filtered weakly through the high canopy of the Emerald Graves, dappling the winding, rocky trail back to camp. Clearing the Freemen out of the Veridium Mine had been a more difficult task than Marron anticipated. Orlesian soldiers were always more trouble than they had any right to be. Still, she relished any opportunity to aid the refugees caught in the middle of this idiotic war.   
  
And now, it was time for rest. It wasn’t much further now. Their camp at Briathos’ Steps must have been less than a mile by this point. Marron left behind a flask of dandelion wine, and after today, she couldn’t wait to down the whole thing.   
  
Cassandra was at the head of their march, and Varric kept a cautious distance behind her. Marron and Solas trailed behind them, but the distance between them shrank with each fatigued footstep. The lot of them trudged along the rugged path, eager and ready to rest their feet and fill their aching bellies.

Varric broke their weary silence as his foot caught on a wandering root, and he unleashed a string of curses into the air. “Is even ground too much to ask for?!”  
“The hills and trees in this area provide natural defenses for our troops,” Cassandra curtly reminded him.   
“ _Tch_ , and natural enemies for my feet.” He kicked away a loose stone and mumbled something under his breath.   
“Care to repeat that, dwarf?”  
_There they go again._  It was anyone’s guess how long their fight would last this time. Solas seized this opportunity and laced his arm around Marron’s waist and pulled her to his side. Stolen moments like this were all they had, lately. She could almost taste the elfroot on his breath as she inhaled the musky, mossy scent of him; he was as much a part of the forest as the trees.   
_Like home._    
His hand absentmindedly brushed the pouch fastened to her belt, and the jars inside rattled together dangerously. Her muscles turned to stone. Marron knew this had been a bad idea from the start, but Sera had been positively insistent. She meant well, true enough, but Gods, at what cost?

 _This is it. This is how I die._  
  
“What is it?” Solas dropped his voice to a hushed whisper to avoid causing unnecessary alarm.  
A million words and screams knotted together in her throat, but Marron couldn’t answer him. Everything inside her stood still as stone, then—

Her heart pounded once.  
Twice.  
_Nothing._  
  
“It’s nothing.” She squeezed her  _hahren_ ’s hand and placed a gentle kiss on his neck. “Thank you.”   
They hastened to catch up with Cassandra and Varric. Silence consumed the group once again, save for the gentle rush of the Silver Falls at their side.

The party had nearly crested the hill in front of them when an arrow hissed past Marron’s head. Half a heartbeat passed, and the party instinctively scattered for cover. Varric ducked behind an oversized root protruding from the ground, while Solas grabbed Marron by the arm and they retreated behind the trunk of a massive tree. Only Cassandra remained on the path, her fearsome greatsword drawn and ready.

A Venatori Gladiator emerged from over the hill, armored to the teeth. He pounded his chest with a gloved fist and shouted something in Tevene. Cassandra responded with her own fearsome battle-cry: something wordless, more animal than human.  
  
One.   
Two.   
Three heartbeats.   
And they charged.

From opposite sides of the path, Varric and Marron glanced at one another and nodded. The Venatori had fearsome mages in their ranks, but their physical fighters weren’t as gifted.   
_Too bad for them._  Together, the two archers picked off the marksman that lurked in the back.

_One down._

Steel crashed against steel as Seeker and Gladiator exchanged blows. Solas wove spells of frost and stone that slowed and weakened the imposing Tevinter warrior. Varric let loose a verbal tapestry of his own as he cursed the Venatori and praised Bianca in equal measures. Marron aimed low while Cassandra slashed high, and the Gladiator crumpled before them.  
  
“Maker take you!” Cassandra spat a mouthful of blood onto the ground.

The Spellbinder’s eerie chants seemed to surround them. The Tevinter mage dashed through the Fade, evading every arrow, every spell they launched at him. A crackling fireball hurled between Marron and Solas, and they darted away in opposite directions. Passing embers had caught on the edge of Solas’s tunic, and the smell of burning fabric filled the air. Small trails of dark smoke curled up around him as Solas muttered Elvhen curses Marron did not recognize.   
_  
No! He’s too close._   “Solas, get back!” Marron jerked her head at the tree they had used for cover, but he wouldn’t listen.  _He never listens._

A cloud of smoke swirled around Cassandra’s feet, and she hacked left and right trying to connect with the Stalker that materialized from the haze. The Venatori rogue mockingly danced around the Seeker as she growled with rage. Cassandra cried out as she brought her greatsword down in a swing that sent the Stalker jumping backwards. He faltered for a moment on the uneven ground.  
That was the opening Marron needed. She reached back into her quiver and wrapped her fingers around—

 _Nothing._  
  
The Venatori rogue retreated into the shadows of the great trees, completely hidden. She cursed the full quiver that was waiting for her back at camp. They were  _so close_ , and yet –

Another fireball whirled past as Marron darted behind a nearby boulder. A muffled  _clink_  came from the jars in her waist pouch as she collided with the rock behind her. She could hear the buzzing. That awful buzzing.  
  
Everything went cold.    
__  
No.  
Her eyes squeezed shut as she pleaded into the void. A dull, high-pitched ringing in her ears drowned out everything. Inside her chest, her heart pounded like the fist of an angry giant, and the sensation was turning her stomach inside out.   
_No, Creators please, no. Not now._  
The ground spun beneath her. Marron plummeted to her knees as short and shallow breaths barely escaped her lungs. The battle was miles away, a distant concern, and Marron was alone with the buzzing, that _awful buzzing_  all around her, and it grew louder with each thunderous heartbeat.  
  
_Let the world know I died in the Emerald Graves._

Her chest heaved; the space between each breath lasted an eternity.  _I’m still alive._ Marron wrapped a hand, cold and sweaty inside her glove, around the hilt of the dagger sheathed on her belt. Deep breaths and the feeling of a real weapon in her hand guided her back to sanity. She swallowed the knot in her throat and opened her eyes to find nothing.

 _Nothing?_  
The jar in her waist pouch still buzzed angrily, but the air around her was still. There was no swarm after all.   
  
“I must retreat!” A familiar voice snapped Marron out of her daze. A beacon of light amidst the chaos, but it was all wrong. His voice was heavy with exhaustion and pain, desperate and ragged. 

_Solas needs help._

The battle came roaring back to her with the awful sound of ripping fabric and a thickly-accented “For the Elder One!” Marron shot up from behind the boulder to see her Elven mage collapsed before the Venatori rogue, the side of his tunic darkened with blood. Her blood ran white-hot as panic warped into rage.   
  
“ _Solas!_ ”

She took a deep breath and reached a shaky hand into the pouch fastened to her belt.

“Get away— _”_  
Marron grasped the buzzing jar with a white-knuckled grip.  
“—from him!”  
With all the force she could manage, Marron hurled the jar towards the Stalker and a furious cloud erupted from the broken glass. The Venatori stumbled back and inhuman screams of terror filled the air. His arms flailed wildly, trying to swat away the enraged swarm of bees.

In a heartbeat, Marron had sprinted across the path and knelt down by Solas. She flung his arm around her shoulders, and dragged him to his feet. “Let’s go!”  
“That had to hurt!” Across the battlefield, Varric was beside himself with laughter as he took free shots at the horrified Tevinter rogue. The Stalker soon collapsed in a heap on the side of the trail.  

“It’s over.” After Cassandra removed her sword from the Spellbinder’s chest, the forest around them was still once again.

Gasping for air, Solas leaned against the massive tree trunk as Marron ripped a shred of cloth from her own tunic and wrapped it around his injured torso. Her heart still beat like a hammer, but he was safe for now.  
_If only he listened to me and ran for cover. He never listens. Stubborn old elf._ The Elven mage winced as the lithe little rogue wrapped the makeshift bandage tighter.

“Are you alright?”  
“Yes.” He paused to clear his throat as Varric and Cassandra approached them. “Thank you, da’len.”

Varric shouldered Bianca and wiped a small trail of blood from his forehead.   
“If you two are quite finished, I’d like to get back to camp before any more Venatori decide to come out and play.”  
Cassandra sighed. “I’m afraid he’s right. Solas, can you walk?”

The disheveled apostate took a step forward and stumbled. Marron instinctively placed herself under his arm for support once more. He offered the weakest of smiles.

“I’ll be fine, Seeker.”

Night had fallen in earnest now, and they could see the torches of their camp flickering in the distance. They breathed a collective sigh of relief.

_At last._

“By the way, that was a nice trick with the bees, Twiggy. Where the hell’d that come from?” Varric reached up and clapped Marron on the small of her back. She shot a nervous, crooked grin down at him.    
“It was a… gift from Sera, actually. I hadn’t hoped to use it, though.” She shivered. “I can’t  _stand_ bees.”  
“A gift? From—?” Varric snorted. “Well, at least they’re not wasps.”

  
_Meanwhile, back at Skyhold_

  
  
“I’ve GOT IT!” Sera threw her head back in wild laughter, striking fear into the hearts of even the most inebriated tavern residents. “This will be grand!” 


End file.
